Search

Yaphet Kotto is an actor in several movies that I like. Some of them are Westerns. Some of them are Action. Some of them are from the Blaxploitation genre. Through them all, Yaphet Kotto always makes an impression.

With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to see what wisdom we can find from the movies of Yaphet Kotto.

From 4 for Texas

A secret whispered in a coffee house is as confidential as a headline in a newspaper.

A man who’d try to con you when he has a gun held on him can’t be all bad.

My fandom of University of Tennessee athletics has been mentioned several times on this blog. We have had season tickets for football and basketball for decades, and I have been lucky enough to attend hundreds of games. However, I am not alone in my addiction. There are thousands upon thousands of us.

One of those thousands, David Keith, has football tickets a few rows in front of us. He is also an actor who has been in some good and not-so-good movies. How big of a fan is he? Well, he wears something orange in every movie.

I just put together a “Movie Wisdom” post but decided that a David Keith version needed to be created.

I only wish that I could have found a good line from The Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck.

From The Rose

We are waitresses at the banquet of life!

From Brubaker

You can’t reform the system if you’re not in it.

From The Two Jakes

The city’s different at night.

You can’t trust a guy who’s never lost anything.

From Major League II

When the tough get goin’, go and get tough.

From U-571

You have to be able to make hard decisions based on imperfect information.

From Men of Honor

Beware what you wish for.

From Daredevil

It’s all business.

Violence doesn’t discriminate.

There’s an old saying that too much pride can kill a man.

Justice isn’t a sin.

Those are words of wisdom from the movies of a guy who sits in front of us at football games. There is only one more thing to say. Go Big Orange!

Last night, we saw A Million Ways to Die in the West. It was not the worst movie I have ever seen, but it was not the best, either. Being a fan of Westerns, I knew what they were trying to do, but they could not quite accomplish it. However, there were a few things that I noticed.

They filmed in two of my favorite locations in the West, Monument Valley and the area around Santa Fe. Monument Valley was immediately recognizable, and, to the discerning eye, the other landscape was undoubtedly northern New Mexico.

I also noticed something else. One scene involves a grizzled old prospector, typical with his white beard and ragged clothes. As he spoke, I thought that I recognized the voice. It took a few seconds, but I finally realized that it was Matt Clark, who has appeared in a bunch of great movies.

He is another one of those character actors whose face people may know even when they do not know his name.

Seeing him in A Million Ways to Die in the West inspired me to compile wise quotes from some of his movies. Remember, a movie only qualifies if I have seen it and if it contains words to live by.

From Will Penny

That stuff’s for doctorin’! It’s not for drinkin’!

Sharin’ a blanket don’t make us married.

Ain’t no good way to go.

We don’t all have the same choices.

From The Cowboys

Well, it’s not how you’re buried, it’s how you’re remembered.

Every man wants his children to be better’n he was.

We’re burnin’ daylight.

Big mouth don’t make a big man.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand the drift of things.

The cow is nothing but trouble tied up in a leather bag.

From Jeremiah Johnson

Elk don’t know how many feet a horse has!

Keep your nose in the wind and your eye along the skyline.

Watch your top knot.

From Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

It feels like… times have changed.

Comes an age in a man’s life when he don’t wanna spend time figuring what comes next.

From White Lightning

The good, they die young!

From The Outlaw Josey Wales

Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is.

Dyin’ ain’t much of a living, boy.

It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues.

Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms.

Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.

I guess some folks don’t like to be called ‘high rollers’.

From Brubaker

You can’t reform the system if you’re not in it.

From The Quick and the Dead

Why is it that the man who begs for mercy never gives it?

From Back to the Future Part III

Your future is whatever you make it.

We all have to make decisions that affect the course of our lives.

From Barbarians at the Gate

Let them curse the darkness – we’re not handing out any candles.

From 42

Roses and sleep are two wonderful things. But sleep you can get when you’re in your casket, and flowers look great on top of it.